


Six Years And Counting

by A_Human42



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Gen, because thats a thing according to the Lord Of Canon (TM), nino's missing brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25861099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Human42/pseuds/A_Human42
Summary: a fic about nino's missing brotherme: i should write somethingme: sees that thomas has posted one (1) thing about nino on twittersomeone else: yea thats just a cover upme, already 1.4k words down the rabbithole: im sorry what was that?
Kudos: 15





	Six Years And Counting

_ “Jay, where- where are you going?” The clock beeped, and an eight-year-old Nino turned to see that it was one AM. Rain pattered against the window. His brother - Jay - took off the red hat that he always wore, and put it down on Nino’s head. _

_ “I want you to keep this safe for me, Neen.” Nino nodded, his eyes filling with tears. “I’ll come back for you, promise.”  _

_ “O- okay.” Jay picked Nino up and twirled him around.  _

_ “I’ll be back, Neen. I promise. I just need to do something. And remember - I love you.” Nino buried his face in the fabric of his brother’s clothes, soaking it with tears. He wiped his eyes and put the hat in his hand onto his head, which was inevitably too big for him. It fell onto Nino’s eyes “Keep the hat safe, it’ll be the last you’ll see of me for a while. I love you, lil’ buddy.”  _

_ Jay hugged Nino again, picked up his backpack, swung it over his shoulder, and walked out the door, into the night. “B- bye, Jay,” said Nino, looking into the rain and putting his hand on the window as his brother disappeared into the nearby forest. “I- I love you.” Tears streamed down his face, and his mother called “Nino! Nino!” _

Wait a minute _ , he thought, _ why is my mom up? _ Then Nino Lahiffe snapped back to reality. _

“Nino! Nino!” Adrien called, “Nino, are you okay?” They were sitting in the lunchroom when suddenly Adrien had seen Nino’s eyes go glossy, tears beginning to leak out of them at some point. 

Nino blinked. “Y- yeah, dude, I’m completely fine.” Rain pattered against the window. So that was what had set off the… whatever it was. Exactly six years since his brother had disappeared. Six years, and he still wasn’t over it. 

“Nino, you were crying, you’re definitely not okay.”

“A- Adrien, it’s fine, just- just leave it alone. Please.”

“Okay, Nino. I will.” Adrien shoveled some of the cafeteria food into his mouth. “But if you wanna talk to me about it, meet me by the back of the school today.” Nino nodded, pushing away his lunch tray, as he no longer had an appetite. All he could think of was Jay. Nino sighed. 

  
  


\---

_ “Jay! Come back!” yelled a now nine-year-old Nino into the void of the rain and the forest. It always seemed to be raining on the anniversary of the day Jay left. “Jay! Jay!” he started, then slowly losing his enthusiasm, “Jay… please, come back. It’s been a year.” The clock beeped. One AM. The doorbell rang. Nino ran to get it, but all that was there was an envelope with the word “Nino” scribbled on it… in Jay’s handwriting. He tore it open. Inside was a note. _

Hi, Nino!

I hope you’re doing good. I’m fine, don’t worry, but I can’t come back just yet. I love you, Neen. Remember, keep the hat safe. I’m gonna come back soon, don’t worry.

\- Jay

_ A tear rolled down Nino’s face. Jay wasn’t coming back for at least another year. The tear dropped onto the paper, smudging the words. The signature, the most important part. Nino screamed into his pillow the rest of the night. _

_ “Neen? Nino? You okay?” That sounded like Chris. But Chris wasn’t able to talk very much, much less ask if he was okay. _

Nino blinked, shaking his head. Alya was shaking him. “Nino? Nino, you good?”

“Y- yeah, Alya, I’m fine.” Six years. 

“You spaced out and were talking about someone called Jay.”

Shit, how much had he told Alya? “Did I say anything…” Nino waved his hands around. “About Jay?”

“No, you just mentioned a Jay.”

“Alya, I’m begging you, don’t try to find out who Jay is. It’s… painful.”

“Okay, Nino. Okay.” Alya rested her head on his shoulder.

\---

_ Nino, now ten years old, looked out the window, into the habitual pouring rain of the anniversary of his brother’s disappearance. One AM, like always. He thought he heard the doorbell ring, and ran over to it, but saw nothing. The third year without Jay. This was the only night Nino allowed himself to cry. And so, he did. Tears ran down Nino’s cheeks as he studied the year-old letter.  _

_ “He said he’d be back. He said he’d be back. He will be back. He’s just not ready yet.” Nino knew it was a lie. He still told himself this every year.  _

“Nino? Nino Lahiffe? Are you in there?”

“Agh, sorry.” Nino smiled. Marinette said nothing, just smiled back and kept on walking home. 

\---

_ Eleven years old. You’d think he’d be over his brother by now. But no, he still stayed up every night, watching and waiting. Was that a ring at the doorbell? No, just Nino’s imagination. A tap on the window? No, just a branch, moved by the usual rain. A running figure? Wait, what? “Jay?” Nino whispered, barely even loud enough for him to hear. _

_ Nino approached the window, throwing it open. “Jay?” he screamed. “Jay? That you?” It wasn’t. “Darn.” He closed the window again, the only things registering the warm trails his tears made down his cheeks and the sound of the rain outside the window. _

“Nino?” It was his little brother. Chris. “Nino?”

“Uh, yeah, little dude?”

“I found a book of family photos and I don’t know who this one is of, and Mama won’t tell me.” Chris pointed to a picture.

“Here, lemme see.” Chris was pointing to a picture in the upper left corner of the page. Nino knew that picture. It was of Jay. Shit.

“Okay, here we go. That person is named Jay, and he is my- our brother. He went missing six years ago, one year before you were born.” Nino pushed his glasses up and wiped at his eyes. “He is also,” said Nino, “where I got this hat from, and why I am so attached to it.” Chris seemed to understand, and so Nino continued.  _ This is fine _ , he thought to himself,  _ Chris needs to know. He is part of this family. _ “Jay left at one AM, six years ago today. He came by my room and gave me his hat, and he told me to take care of it for him. And I am still hoping he will come back.” Nino paused and wiped at his eyes again. 

Chris looked up at him. He shouldn’t have said anything. He shouldn’t have said anything. Chris didn’t need to know. Nino’s vision blurred, and he heard the sound of Chris getting up and leaving. 

\---

_ Four years since Jay had left, with a promise to return, but he never did. Twelve years old now, Nino had considered going out and looking for Jay himself, but he knew his mother would consider him missing, too, and he knew how it felt to have a family member go missing. Hell, he had even packed a bag at one point and planned to go out before his mother stopped him.  _

_ Nino repeated the words “I’ll come back for you” for an hour, until his voice was hoarse. The rain was harder than before. Nino went to open the window, and screamed out into the inky black of the night. “You said you would come back for me! You said you would come back!” There was no reply, unless you counted the echoes.  _

A  _ ding _ came from Nino’s phone, and he sighed, picking it up. It was a text from Adrien. “Can I call you?” it read. Nino replied with “No, dude, I can’t.” Adrien said that he was slightly concerned about Nino and Nino replied that he was fine, and Adrien left it at that. 

\---

_ It had only been five years, but it seemed like an eternity, and yet just yesterday. Nino took off his hat. It was still somehow a vibrant red, despite all the water it had absorbed over the years. “He’s not coming back, is he?” Nino whispered this, his pillow held to his face. _

_ “I should have known. I should have known.” Nino sighed, walking over to the window. He put his hand to the cold glass, feeling the incessant drumming of the rain. He thought he saw a figure approaching, but it was just a shadow made by the trees.  _

Nino sat up in his chair, thinking he had heard a knock. He got up from his laptop and went to the door. Chris sat outside it. Nino walked over and picked up his little brother. “Hey, Chris. How are you doing?”


End file.
